Art for Tomorrow 2025 – Milan, Italy
Overcoming, Together
In 2025, the world is facing unprecedented challenges, many of them rooted in the inequalities that have only been exacerbated by the triple threat of political, economic and climate crises. These challenges can lead to fracture and isolation, turning away from each other instead of coming together, and leaving the most vulnerable behind. But change will only come if we turn outward instead of inward, to our friends, our communities and our planet.
Art for Tomorrow 2025 was about tapping into this shared humanity to learn about creative solutions to the most entrenched problems. From May 12-14, we convened influential figures from the arts, design and architecture in Milan, to explore the impact that these fields can and do have on society.
The beautiful Triennale Milano, where the event was hosted, was the perfect setting in which to consider contemporary challenges. Art for Tomorrow was proud to be collaborating with both Triennale Milano, which presented the 24th International Exhibition titled “Inequalities” from May 13 to November 9, and with Milan Art Week, which took place in April with the theme “Among Friends.” We also explored Milan’s vibrant cultural landscape, venturing into museums, performance spaces and design studios to see the arts in action.
Here are just some of the topics senior New York Times journalists explored with leading figures from the art world in the plenary sessions this year:
- Community-driven arts
- Migration as a boon for creativity
- Art in times of war
- Biodiversity celebration
- The power of sound art
- Reviving cultural heritage
- Forging public/private partnerships
The New York Times Special Report
In Art for Tomorrow’s Special Report, NYT journalists Farah Nayeri, Laura Rysman, Ginanne Brownell, Ted Loos and Hilarie M. Sheets report on the conference sessions, as well as interviews held around the event.
2025 Speakers
H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani
Chairperson, Qatar Museums
Jeff Koons
Artist
Lord Norman Foster
President, Norman Foster Foundation
Theaster Gates
Artist and Professor of Visual Arts, University of Chicago
Antony Gormley
Sculptor
Shirin Neshat
Artist and Photographer
Hans Ulrich Obrist
Curator and Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries
Vicente Todolí
Curator and Artistic Director, Pirelli HangarBicocca
Khalid Albaih
Political Cartoonist
Susanna Barla
Founder and C.E.O., Genesis 3.0 and Creators Fund
Alvaro Barrington
Artist
Nomi Bar-Yaacov
Award winning International Peace Negotiator, Geneva Center for Security Policy
Ronen Berger
Art-Based Community Resiliency Expert and Senior Arts Therapist, Ono Academic College and Community Stress Prevention Center, Israel
Stefano Boeri
Urban Planner and President, Triennale Milano
Elena Bonanno di Linguaglossa
Executive Director, Thaddaeus Ropac Milan
Diana Campbell
Artistic Director, Bukhara Biennial 2025: Recipes for Broken Hearts and Head of Global Initiatives, Hartwig Art Foundation
Giulia Cenci*
Artist
Melanie Challenger
Writer and Researcher
Yaryna Chornohuz
Poet
Bjørnstjerne Christiansen
Artist and Co-Founder, Superflex
Alessandro Cinque
Photojournalist
Beatriz Colomina
Professor of Architecture, Princeton University
Kim Conniff Taber
Editorial Director, Democracy & Culture Foundation
João Correia
Art Historian and Founder, Collezionista
Massimo De Carlo
Gallery Founder
Michele De Lucchi
Architect and Founder, AMDL CIRCLE
Martine d'Anglejan-Chatillon
Founder and C.E.O., MDAC Productions
Eneri
Visual Artist and Pixadora
Marta Foresti
Founder and C.E.O., LAGO Collective, London
Federica Fragapane
Information Designer
Anthony Huberman*
Curator, Writer and Artistic Director
Bettina Kames
Co-Founder and C.E.O., LAS Art Foundation, Berlin
Jakob Kudsk Steensen
Artist and Animator
Pearl Lam
Founder, Pearl Lam Galleries, China Art Foundation, and Host, “The Pearl Lam Podcast”
Jiyoon Lee
Art Historian, Curator, Writer and Art Strategy Consultant
Okkyung Lee
Cellist, Composer and Improviser
Sofia Lekka Angelopoulou
Editor in Chief, Designboom
Courtney J. Martin
Executive Director, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
Michael P. Nash
Artist and Filmmaker
Anna Meneguzzo
Brand and Communication Creative Officer, Moleskine
Simon Njami
Writer, Art Critic and Curator
Wim Pijbes
Art Historian and Director, Droom en Daad
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Artist
Nicola Ricciardi*
Artistic Director, Miart
David Salle
Artist
Adama Sanneh
Co-Founder and C.E.O., Moleskine Foundation
Alain Servais
Art Collector
Audrey Teichmann
Art Curator, Audemars Piguet
Achilles Tsaltas
Founder and President, Democracy & Culture Foundation
Gayane Umerova
Chairperson, Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation
2025 Cultural Tours
Pirelli HangarBicocca
Pirelli HangarBicocca is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to producing and promoting contemporary art.
Established in 2004, Pirelli HangarBicocca has become a benchmark institution for the international art community, local public and region. It is free of charge, accessible and open, and a place for experimentation, research and dissemination, where art is a point of reflection on the most topical themes of contemporary culture and society.
Situated in a former industrial building, once a locomotive manufacturing facility, Pirelli HangarBicocca occupies 15,000 square meters, making it one of the largest single-level exhibition spaces in Europe. This vast area comprises the Shed and Navate spaces, which are used for temporary exhibitions, and the permanent display of Anselm Kiefer’s “The Seven Heavenly Palaces 2004-2015.” This monumental installation with seven reinforced concrete towers has become one of the most iconic works in Milan. “La Sequenza (1971-1981)” by sculptor Fausto Melotti has been located in the outdoor garden at the entrance of Pirelli HangarBicocca since 2010.
Photo credits: Yukinori Yanagi “ICARUS” Exhibition view, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2025 Foreground: Article 9, 1994 Background: Project God-zilla 2025 The Revenant from “El Mare Pacificum”, 2025 ©YANAGI STUDIO Courtesy the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan Photo Agostino Osio
MASSIMODECARLO
Massimo De Carlo Milanese headquarters have been housed in the iconic Casa Corbellini-Wassermann, in Viale Lombardia 17, since 2019. Built in the early 1930’s by renowned Italian architect Piero Portaluppi, the space was initially designed for domestic use and features exquisite details in the use of precious materials, such as various types of marbles for both the interior and exterior. One of the finest examples of Milanese rationalist architecture, this incredibly charged space – rooted in history and opened to the public following an extensive renovation and philological restoration curated by Studio Binocle overseen by Antonio Citterio – creates a new inspiration for the gallery artists and beyond.
Photo credits: Jennifer Guidi Points on Your Journey - Photo by Roberto Marossi - Courtesy MASSIMODECARLO
Museo del Novecento
The Museo Novecento is dedicated to the Italian art of the 20th and 21st centuries and offers a permanent collection and many temporary exhibitions, art installations and special projects. The museum is located in the ancient Spedale of the Leopoldine in Santa Maria Novella Square.
Opened on 24 June 2014, the Museo Novecento is dedicated to 20th-century art, presenting a selection of works from the civic collections which focuses on Italian art of the first half of the 20th century.
The Museo Novecento organizes and hosts cycles of meetings, presentations, screenings and concerts conceived as moments of critical study on the 20th century. The programming is curated by Sergio Risaliti.
Credits Ela Bialkowska OKNOstudio
Loris Cecchini’s Studio
Loris Cecchini’s 450-square-meter studio is located at Via Medghino 16 within a renovated 1960s concrete building. The space is on the ground floor and accessible to visitors with reduced mobility. It can be easily reached via the green metro line (Abbiategrasso station) or by tram 15 (Via Medeghino stop).
Characterized by its large glass and steel openings, the studio is bathed in natural light. This is where Loris Cecchini creates poetic sculptural installations that blur the boundaries between nature, architecture and technology, often using modular forms and organic shapes to evoke living systems. His works play with perception and space, transforming walls and environments into dynamic, flowing surfaces that seem to pulse with life.
AMDL CIRCLE
AMDL CIRCLE is a creative laboratory housed in a liberty-style building on Via Varese, in the heart of Brera, Milan. Spread across five levels, the space is open and flexible, reflecting a design approach that embodies a constant state of change and fluidity. Natural materials, exposed systems and deliberately raw and imperfect surfaces speak of a place in ongoing transformation, where nothing is static or final.
This same “raw” language is echoed in the adjacent gallery, inaugurated during MDW25. With its eight street-facing windows, it is a mutable exhibition space — intentionally unfinished — conceived as a grand theatrical stage ready to host a different narrative each time. At its opening, the dialogue between rough surfaces and the objects of Produzione Privata made tangible the tension between completed form and an evolving environment — a story still unfolding, visible today within the space.
